Analog I/O's & Mic Pre's

[dawman]

The Analog I/O's of XITE-1 are hot and much better then the cards.
I don't have specific spec.'s but using my hardware Spring Reverb, and SE-1X Analog synth I was able to plug directly into the input, negating the need for the ADAT conversion.
I wish I would have kept my Line 6 Echo Pro & Oberheim EDP now, as these are much better.
The mic pre'.s won't replace an Avalon 737 or Crane Song Flamingo, but they are on par with my FMR's and I notice no difference in quality.
We used the 2 mentioned mic pre's, and a pair of U86/87 mics and sure these pre amps are a step above, especually the Crane Song, which is the best mic pre I have ever used or heard.
The Avalon has the Tube/Opto compressor and other tricks but I wouldn't pay 2000 + USD for that.
The Crane Song is just as good as it gets, and naturally for my friends services I have to let him lecture me all night, but even he gave the XITE-1 mic pre's a back handed compliment. Coming from a vintage mic and mic pre collector, that's good.
Most guys will already have quality mic pre's and see these as unnecessary, but I was going to buy another FMR for live work, but won't need to now.
I have four good quality mic pre's for live work. If I ever really need a super high quality set up I can rent his, but for mobile use, and especially for an include pair, these are a great deal.
The Headphone is also a great benfit. It sounds of a higher quality than my mixer's headphone out.
96k recording sounds a little better to me, but I cannot see sacrificing the double power for it's use.
I was thinking there would be some noticable major difference, but my ears tell me no.
I would prefer sending audio stems into an external summing mixer and send it back to the DAW.
I see many people arguing that 96k and 192k can provide better results, etc.
Running 44.1k and having the benfit of the extra resources is what I will do, and for recording I find that summing externally adds a warmer, wider sound to the audio.
96k just seems to add high end which I would rather avoid, at least w/ XITE-1 and Cubase 4.0 & Reaper.
I really love the way you can route your mics to whatever or wherever you want.
SFP is just too much fun.

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[netguyjoel]

2 questions. Do you know what DSP chips #s are the orig. and which ones are the new ones?

How does being able to allocate functions, to a desired chip ID#, optimize performance. Is this a DSP allocation for processing synths and FX, vs audio tracking??

Thanking you in advance...brotha'

[dawman]

I am still trying to figure out it's advantages/disadvantages.
The optimization windows pop up on synths that have lots of parameters and high polyphony.
Some synths work better than others,and I suppose it's how they were designed.
Synth polyphony can bring a card to it's knees much easier than extra powerful mixers and effects.
In XITE-1 using high plug in counts and large mixers seems to be a breeze.
This is a really good mastering package.
64 channels of ASIO, another mixer full of synths, etc. No problemos......

I hate my voice but last night I had these really top shelf mics and couldn't stop myself from playing with the effects, etc.
I used Tri-Octaver, and ADT for funky Pitch Shifting and harmonizing of vocals, and Warp's Inverse Reverb is a spot on Lexicon sound, and actually allows 100% wet w/ no vocal sound to work better than my PCM91.

I wish I could have tried the mic pres with these mics on an Acoustic Guitar but I didn't have the foresight to think of that.
I can try it with a Heil PR40 and the XITE-1 mic pre's later.

If one were to load up a blank start up project he could view the left column on the DSP meter and see where the numbers rise when adding other devices, that way you know where the DSP assignment are going.
I am still confused about the extremely high numbers I have seen in the far right Async column when I max out synths w/ 16 voice polyphony.

[Warp69]

2 questions. Do you know what DSP chips #s are the orig. and which ones are the new ones?

How does being able to allocate functions, to a desired chip ID#, optimize performance. Is this a DSP allocation for processing synths and FX, vs audio tracking??

Thanking you in advance...brotha'

DSP #1-6 are the original 21065L (goes to around sync 1100 (MAX) in the DSP window)
DSP #7-18 are the new 21369 (goes to around sync 6600 (MAX) in the DSP window)

You can allocate the DSP's manually - very nice feature.

[katano]

2 questions. Do you know what DSP chips #s are the orig. and which ones are the new ones?

How does being able to allocate functions, to a desired chip ID#, optimize performance. Is this a DSP allocation for processing synths and FX, vs audio tracking??

Thanking you in advance...brotha'

DSP #1-6 are the original 21065L (goes to around sync 1100 (MAX) in the DSP window)
DSP #7-18 are the new 21369 (goes to around sync 6600 (MAX) in the DSP window)

You can allocate the DSP's manually - very nice feature.

Why did they use different DSPs? Backward compatibility? So this means that large synths may deliver more voices if allocated to DSP 7-18? I don't get it...

Cheers
Roman

[Warp69]

Why did they use different DSPs? Backward compatibility? So this means that large synths may deliver more voices if allocated to DSP 7-18? I don't get it...

Exactly - The old 21065L is used for backward compatibility and different tasks. That means that reverbs, large synths and effects (well most things) should use the new 21369 DSPs.

[Immanuel]

This thing keeps on impressing me more and more!!

[dawman]

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SWEETNESS...................

[netguyjoel]

So the thought of just running the Mixer, and OEM Scope synths, "forgotten synths" on DSP 1-6 (cuz they are not that taxing) and run the large Verbs, large synths (solaris, modulars, etc) by DSP 7-18

Pretty kewl...at least from what I understand

[garyb]

stems into analog, really is a wasted step with Scope.

if those pres are on par with FMR's, then they are MORE than useful for anyone. i'm not surprised that a $3,000 pre is better, but a $3000 pre isn't required for all inputs.

[astroman]

nice reports, Jimmy and Martin, very cool

cheers, Tom

[dawman]

.......OEM synths.
That's a good one. Synths for the uninvited guests....

I would love to be a fly in the soup at SC in Seigburg for a couple days.
I had this on for 58 1/2 hours and slept for 10 hours, and went out for Sushi for 1 1/2.
So I have earned my rest...........Goodnight Irene.

I now have some pretty incredible sounding small spaces made and stored away.
When I wake back up presets for Halls and larger spaces will be made.....those are the easiest.
While many are excited about the new synths we will see later and other great devices, I think for the first time I want to see SDK more.
Because I know there are going to be some serious time based effects made.
Jeez, the STW/Warp69 stuff sounds really good, I can imagine what you do with more RAM.
Reverse Loopers and all sorts of cool stuff.
Frank Hund seemed to have handcuffed the old company.
Let's hope these guys enjoy their hands being in front of them.............

Slight update......

I learned how to use XITE-1 more effectively with the DSP assignments thanks to Warp69's knowledge of the DSP arrangement.
I could only get 6 voices of Roys' Additive synth Atze on a Scope Pro card, as it is a beast, and the Pulse Pad is such a great preset and shows the programmability and power of the synth. But I had to try it with the XITE-1. At first I could only get 3 voices and was bummed out. The synth because of it's DSP footprint needs more than the default placement allows, so I decided to place it on chip# 8 and push the polyphony. Works perfectly, but this makes me wonder how other big synths from SpaceF and Bowen will work.
I will obviously have to load them with the basic 2 voices, and then assign DSP's as that seems to avoid the optimization windows.
Once you assign a synth or large device to a DSP chip it becomes a differnt color and the number disappears. Don't know why and don't care, I am just happy to get 6 voices of Atze so I can use that PulsePad preset to experiment with all of it's parameters and reverse engineer it. Just a single note of that preset has the sound of several Oscillators. Reminds me of a Flexor III preset where several freq's can be extracted from a single Oscillator using Ramp Generators.
But check out this power......6 voices buckled a Scope Pro, but the meter shows tons of juice left by assigning the device to a single DSP.
This is a very tweakable DSP platform. I can hardly wait for the big toy keyfiles.....

Below shows the Atze using the same voice that maxxed out the Scope Pro card. I am not even sure if there is any juice left on that chip, but consider the meter showing an equal amount of power of an entire Scope Pro card.................ankyuvarymush.
Oh BTW, 2 of the 4 bars showing is for mixer/effects and start up resources. So that means the 2 bars out of 25 represents a Scope Pro maxxed?........who cares, it's got major Cahones, and I don't know if that's an accurate accessment.

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[netguyjoel]

Is the Atze assigned to DSP #7 or 7-18 showing the DSP load for the Pulse Pad pre?.

[dawman]

I put Atze on DSP 8.
The other numbers are from mixers and effects and start up/run processee's.
Atze is the biggest resource hog I have until early next week.
Wait I remember some Modular stuff like Flexosaurus.....I'll try that this morning.

[Mr Arkadin]

i assume it blanks out that DSP from the list so you can't try and assign something else to it. When you reload a project does it keep the DSP assignments?

[siriusbliss]

I would prefer sending audio stems into an external summing mixer and send it back to the DAW.
I see many people arguing that 96k and 192k can provide better results, etc.
Running 44.1k and having the benfit of the extra resources is what I will do, and for recording I find that summing externally adds a warmer, wider sound to the audio.
96k just seems to add high end which I would rather avoid, at least w/ XITE-1 and Cubase 4.0 & Reaper.
I really love the way you can route your mics to whatever or wherever you want.
SFP is just too much fun.

Jimmy, the WHOLE point of Scope is that you don't have to go outside the environment via more D/A/D stages to get good summing. It's illusive.
It comes down to more how you're MONITORING what you're hearing rather than what's going on inside Scope.

Just run your mix out of your DAW to another mixer inside Scope, and sum that way. Definitely a nice wide big-overhead sound this way (especially I presume with the FB's - which I don't have yet).

I use two instances of Samplitude for mix/master - all done inside Scope. You can even route out of your host and back into a new track during mixdown. THIS is one thing I'll be testing once my Xite arrives.

Thanks for doing all this drooling work

Greg